Utica police: Shooter 'was on a downward spiral'

Police might never know why 37-year-old Jerry McNair apparently killed one of his girlfriends before then turning the gun on himself in a West Utica apartment Wednesday. But what authorities do know is that McNair’s life appeared to be falling apart. They hope to gain more information from a woman...

Police might never know why 37-year-old Jerry McNair first apparently killed one of his girlfriends before then turning the gun on himself in a West Utica apartment Wednesday.

But what authorities do know is that McNair’s life appeared to be falling apart.

When McNair couldn’t accept that his ex-girlfriend had ended their relationship, police said he tried to kill her by shooting her in the back of the head earlier this week.

When McNair faced recent drug charges and allegations that he sexually abused a child, the burden of those troubles might have weighed heavily on him, police added.

And when McNair expressed suicidal threats that police would never take him alive, authorities understood he was a desperate, dangerous man who needed to be stopped before anyone else was hurt.

“Apparently he was on a downward spiral,” Utica police Lt. Michael Zdanowicz said during a news conference Thursday morning. “I just think his world was caving in around him and that was too much for him to handle.”

But despite the round-the-clock efforts by police to apprehend McNair, he never gave them the chance: McNair ended everything on his own terms by killing himself and another woman he had been close to, police said.

This apparent murder-suicide is the year’s first known homicide in Utica and Oneida County.

Although police believed they had tracked McNair to a second floor apartment at 815 McVean St., they had no idea anyone had been shot until an emergency response team forced its way into the house at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Zdanowicz said.

There they found the bodies of McNair and 36-year-old Petra Gonzalez, who had been shot in the back of her head just like McNair’s ex-girlfriend 48 hours earlier, police said. But unlike the “miraculous” survival of the first victim, Gonzalez died from her wound, police said.

What brought both McNair and Gonzalez to that McVean Street apartment is still unclear, since neither lived there, Zdanowicz said.

McNair and Gonzalez had both been charged last September following an investigation into allegations that McNair had sexually abused a young child, police said.

Although police believe McNair probably fled there after first shooting his ex-girlfriend at her Parkedge Town House apartment in North Utica Monday night, police don’t know if Gonzalez ever knew what her on-again-off-again boyfriend had done, Zdanowicz said.

Police also don’t know whether either McNair or Gonzalez were ever aware of news reports several hours earlier that authorities were looking for McNair as a suspect in the “attempted execution” of the first woman.

Police had decided to publicize the first woman’s shooting in an attempt on Wednesday to flush out McNair, Zdanowicz said. Because police felt McNair likely believed his first victim was dead, investigators thought that news of her survival might encourage McNair to surrender, Zdanowicz explained.

Page 2 of 2 - “I used the media to get the message across that there was still hope for him, that he wouldn’t be facing a murder charge,” Zdanowicz said regarding the previous shooting.

That 23-year-old victim – whose name is not being released – was currently in critical but stable condition at a local hospital, Zdanowicz said. The woman is lucky to be alive, he said, and she has been able to somewhat explain how and why McNair had attacked her.

Police made repeated attempts to talk with McNair as they tracked him, without any success, Zdanowicz said. Police also had planned to talk with Gonzalez, but they never got that chance.

Chrystal Szewczyk was one of the people whose family was told to evacuate the 815-817 McVean St. building as police surrounded the house about 2 p.m. Wednesday in an attempt to talk out McNair. Those efforts lasted several hours until police later forced their way in.

“Usually it’s a quiet neighborhood,” Szewczyk said outside the house Thursday. “There’s kids around here, so it actually quite shocks me that something like this happened.”